The present invention relates to suction-mountable display devices and, more particularly, to suction-mountable devices having at least one bend adjacent a periphery of the device.
Most conventional vacuum-mountable devices include a flexible body having a circular periphery extending around the body. Circular bodies are common because non-symmetric reflex or spring forces develop within bodies having non-circular peripheries. When a vacuum-mountable device is deformed from an undeformed shape, reflex forces are created within its body that act to return the body to its undeformed shape. When the body is deformed and the device is mounted on a surface by vacuum, the reflex forces act to push the body away from the surface while vacuum forces created between the device body and the surface work to hold the device against the surface. The vacuum forces must be greater than the sum of the reflex forces created in the body to create and maintain a connection between the body and the surface. The reflex forces developed in non-circular bodies during deformation are generally distributed in a non-circular manner around the body. Vacuum forces between the body and mounting surface do not balance well with the non-uniform sum of the reflex forces for keeping the device mounted on the surface.
Some conventional vacuum-mountable devices having non-circular peripheries reduce the effect of non-circular reflex forces by tapering a thickness of the body towards the periphery. That is, the thickness measured between an inner surface having a concave portion and an outer surface opposite the inner surface decreases toward the periphery of the body. The reflex forces developed during deformation of tapered bodies are more uniform because there is less material nearer the periphery where the body is non-uniformly shaped. The body near the periphery contributes less to the reflex forces of the body in proportion to the decreased thickness, allowing the reflex forces distributed more uniformly around a center of the body to predominate the sum of the reflex forces. By developing more uniform reflex forces in the body, devices having a tapered thickness can securely mount on mounting surfaces. Methods of making devices having non-circular peripheries that do not require tapering of the body thickness and resulting devices are sought. Such devices could be made with a variety of periphery shapes without the need for tapering.